Sciences Lead Improved CSEC Performance in 2018

There was improved performance on all three natural science subjects at the May/June 2018 sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and an overall improvement in the percentage of entries achieving acceptable grades – Grades I – III. This year, 70 per cent of CSEC entries obtained acceptable grades compared with 66 per cent in 2017.

Sciences

Performance on all three natural science subjects improved in 2018 compared with 2017. For Biology, 72 per cent of entries accomplished acceptable grades, this compared with 67 per cent in 2017. Similarly, for Chemistry there was a five-percentage point improvement with 60 per cent gaining satisfactory grades compared with 55 per cent in 2017; while for Physics 68 per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 60 per cent in 2017.

Sixty-four per cent of entries for Human and Social Biology achieved acceptable grades this year, compared with 53 per cent in 2017.

Both Agricultural Science Double Award and Single Award continue to perform above the regional average, even though there was a decline this year. For Agricultural Science Double Award, 95 per cent of entries attained acceptable grades compared with 97 per cent in 2017, while for Agricultural Single Award, 85 per cent attained acceptable grades compared with 92 per cent last year.

Mathematics and English

There were improved performance in the two English and Mathematics subjects offered at CSEC. For English A, 71 per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 67 per cent in 2017, while for English B, 78 per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades this year compared with 58 per cent in 2017.

Performance on Mathematics improved to 48 per cent of acceptable grades, up from 44 per cent in 2017, while for Additional Mathematics, there was a two-percentage point improvement, with 70 per cent of entries achieving acceptable grades compared with 68 per cent in 2017.

Business Cognate

Performance on subjects in the business cognate was mixed. Office Administration and Electronic Document Preparation and Management returned the same results in 2017 with 83 per cent and 96 per cent of entries achieving acceptable grades respectively. Eighty-five per cent of entries for Principles of Business achieved acceptable grades this year compared with 89 per cent in 2017, while 68 per cent of entries achieved similar grades for Principles of Accounts compared with 75 per cent in 2017. Seventy-one per cent of entries for Economics achieved acceptable grades compared with 79 per cent in 2017.

Foreign Languages

Of the three foreign languages offered at CXC, performance improved on two and declined on one. Seventy-one per cent of entries for French achieved acceptable grades this year compared with 70 per cent in 2017. For Spanish 69 per cent of entries gained Grades I-III compared with 67 per cent in 2017. Of the 69 per cent, just over 22 per cent achieved Grade I. Portuguese, offered for the second time this year, saw 71 per cent of entries achieving acceptable grades compared with 83 per cent in 2017 when it was offered for the first time.

Technical and Vocational Subjects

There were improved performances on most of the Technical Vocational subjects particularly Industrial Technology and its options. For Industrial Technology – Electrical, 80 per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 74 per cent in 2017. For Industrial Technology – Mechanical, 83 per cent of entries gained acceptable grades compared with 76 per cent last year, while for Industrial Technology – Building, there was a four-percentage point improvement, 85 per cent this year compared with 81 per cent last year.

Eighty-four per cent of entries for Technical Drawing achieved acceptable grades, compared with 77 per cent in 2017. In the other subjects, performance was above the overall average; however, there was a two-percentage point decline on performance. For Textiles Clothing and Fashion 77 per cent of entries gained acceptable grades this year compared with 75 per cent last year. For both Food, Nutrition and Health and Family and Resource Management, performance was above the average but declined by two per cent in both subjects. Eighty-nine per cent of entries for Food, Nutrition and Healthy achieved acceptable grades compared with 91 per cent last year, while eight-five per cent of entries again acceptable grades for Family and Resource Management this year compared with 87 per cent last year.

Entries

This year 125, 754 candidates wrote 33 subjects offered at CSEC, compared with 127, 380 in May/June last year. Subject entries stand at 572, 400 entries compared with 577, 983 entries last year.

Mathematics continues to be the largest CSEC subject with 88, 524 candidates, followed by English A with 81, 702 candidates, Social Studies with 45, 811, Principles of Business 34, 947, and Information Technology 25, 630 entries complete the top five largest subjects.